I hate squats

[Stoopy]

I've been doing them for 2 months now but my gains are incredibly slow. I read that you should keep your knees behind your feet while you squat. Well whenever i do a heavier weight my knees are way past my feet. I've been pretty much stuck at 145lb squat with perfect form. If i add a plate i can't keep my knees from shooting past my feet.

[RedSpikeyThing]

Keeping your knees behin/over you feet is for a powerlifting squat. It puts the emphasis on your back and hamstrings. It also reduces the distance the bar has to travel. If you are not powerlifting, you should do ass to grass squats.

[hardgainer169]

I have never heard of that rule before, looks like redspikey's got u cleared up. Now you can start squatting some real weight!

[Howard 9]

Squatting is awesome, I love it...Just keep working at it cause you must do them if you ever wanna get your legs big, good luck!

[Turnip]

You can still go ass to floor with your knees not traveling past your toes, that is what the posters talking about right?

[eddie500]

This sounds like a recent post of mine, I've been doing squats also for a little over a month and my gains were slow, I was stuck around 135LBS foreever. But I just started to gain weight recently.. I think this could be the problem.

This is assuming you are going at least to parallel, to maybe below..
SInce your new to squats, you bascially have to build up your ass muscles and other muscles that are used to do that low squat and keep good form. As you are getting stronger.. you will try to perfect your form, which will also be adding stress to these ass and back of leg muscles (I have no idea what they are called, and to lazy to look them up). So bascially soon you should be noticing gains as these mucles get devloped.. they bascially have to catch up. SO your strength gains are being used in perfecting your squat form, like going lower etc.

And since your squatting only 145LBS, your probably skinny and have a small ass, which needs time to get devloped.


As for your knees going past your toes.. I'll tell you that mine go past my toes also.. I try to minimize it, but I really see no way I could squat and be stable and not have my knees go at least a little past my toes.

[SaVvY]

Squatting is awesome, I love it...Just keep working at it cause you must do them if you ever wanna get your legs big, good luck!

squats are a great exercise, dont get me wrong, but you dont 'have' to do them to get big legs

leg press, stiff leg deadlift, leg extension, leg curl, and standing calf raise - aslong as everythings done with correct form i wouldnt say this was a bad legs workout for a bodybuilder

[Anthony]

leg press, stiff leg deadlift, leg extension, leg curl, and standing calf raise - aslong as everythings done with correct form i wouldnt say this was a bad legs workout for a bodybuilder

Leg press, leg extension, and leg curl might help you grow, but they'll also develop faulty movement patterns, imbalances, and increase risk of injury (either acute or chronic). I'd steer clear of anything that locks you into a specific path unless you're being supervised by a professional for rehab or whatever.

Squats are important, not just for growing, but for long term health and functional movement. If you're not doing them in one form or another, your routine is ****. Period.

(this isn't an attack on you, savvy, just a general observation)

[SaVvY]

Leg press, leg extension, and leg curl might help you grow, but they'll also develop faulty movement patterns, imbalances, and increase risk of injury (either acute or chronic). I'd steer clear of anything that locks you into a specific path unless you're being supervised by a professional for rehab or whatever.

Squats are important, not just for growing, but for long term health and functional movement. If you're not doing them in one form or another, your routine is ****. Period.

(this isn't an attack on you, savvy, just a general observation)

i dont know what your talking about with faulty movement patterns (faulty for what?), and imbalances (of what?)

but your saying people that do these exercises are at a higher risk of injury than people who squat? find that a bit strange cuss i know / have heard of many people whom have back problems that were caused from squatting, an have heard of pretty much no injuries from these other exercises

[RedSpikeyThing]

i dont know what your talking about with faulty movement patterns (faulty for what?), and imbalances (of what?)

but your saying people that do these exercises are at a higher risk of injury than people who squat? find that a bit strange cuss i know / have heard of many people whom have back problems that were caused from squatting, an have heard of pretty much no injuries from these other exercises

He's talking about real world movements. Isolating the hamstrings and quads produces a strength imbalance between the two and also promotes a weak lower back.

The faulty movements patterns refers to going from isolation exercises to real world/compound movements. Think of this situation: A heavy piece of junk needs to be moved and the guy who does isolations says "I can lift that, after all I can do xxx on leg extensions". He squats down, picks it up and throws it his back. Sure he could move that weight with his legs, but his back can't support it. Now think of the guy who can squat that much. Not only does he have the strength, but his form should (theoretically) be better.

[Anthony]

i dont know what your talking about with faulty movement patterns (faulty for what?), and imbalances (of what?)

but your saying people that do these exercises are at a higher risk of injury than people who squat? find that a bit strange cuss i know / have heard of many people whom have back problems that were caused from squatting, an have heard of pretty much no injuries from these other exercises

Faulty for functionality. The body was designed to: squat, deadlift, lunge, push horizontally and vertically, and pull horizontally and vertically. The majority (read: all) of your training should be centered around those principles (especially while standing) if you want to maximize strength, health, and functionality.

Machines lock you into a predefined movement pattern and range of motion, which may or may not be ideal for your body size and leverage. This increases your risk of injury.

The muscle imbalances are a result of detraining your body to work as a unit. Muscle imbalances will eventually lead to injury.

No one gets injured when they squat properly.

[Howard 9]

squats are a great exercise, dont get me wrong, but you dont 'have' to do them to get big legs

leg press, stiff leg deadlift, leg extension, leg curl, and standing calf raise - aslong as everythings done with correct form i wouldnt say this was a bad legs workout for a bodybuilder

I mean yeah you might not have to, but would you not agree they would be a pretty big part of any leg workout?

[SaVvY]

I mean yeah you might not have to, but would you not agree they would be a pretty big part of any leg workout?

any leg workout i do, yes, absolutely - what i did not agree with is that you 'have' to do squats to get big legs, because you dont

personally id say more injuries are caused from free weight exercises as form can be all wrong, with machines thats close to impossible

dont take this machine talk as i think machine exercises rule, as for the most part they would only be good to pick up an throw around, i just dont think all of them are useless

[Steele]

Have you any evidence to support this? And you haven't answered my previous questions.

-Steele

personally id say more injuries are caused from free weight exercises as form can be all wrong, with machines thats close to impossible

[Howard 9]

any leg workout i do, yes, absolutely - what i did not agree with is that you 'have' to do squats to get big legs, because you dont

personally id say more injuries are caused from free weight exercises as form can be all wrong, with machines thats close to impossible

dont take this machine talk as i think machine exercises rule, as for the most part they would only be good to pick up an throw around, i just dont think all of them are useless

So would you say leg extension is still a good way to help your quads and compliment them after squats and lunges?

[Chris686]

Seems physically impossible for the knees to NOT go past the toes when you keep your legs relatively close together.

But if you widen your stance and perhaps point your toes outwards slightly it can be done.

[deeder]

Just make sure that you break at the hips and not the knees when you first start going down. Just keep sticking your ass out as you go down. Your knees will naturally move a bit over your toes but it shouldn't be too too much.

[Built]

Your knees will go a little over your toes. It's okay.

Here's a vid with the right form for ATF squats.

[Saltimboca]

In a similar but different boat from the OP here.

I LOVE squats. LOVE em. It's a rush having that much weight on you.

However, I do have a problem with my form that I can't seem to get rid of. There's a certain weight range, probably 3/4 my 5RM, where my form falls apart. I unconsciously hitch my hips forward, before pushing up with my legs. I don't really know how better to describe it. Even if I concentrate on pushing with the legs, and trying to not jut my hips forward, it happens. The end result is I use my lower back way too much, and it feels slightly strained at the end of the day. Not quite a good strain either.

Problem is I don't really have anyone to help me out in person. I've never seen anyone besides myself use the squat rack, so no squatting partners. All the trainers and the regulars there tell me to just not squat, to use the smith machine or just leg press exclusively, so they're no help.

I'm not putting up much weight at all, my 5RM is around 165-175# right now. I'm assuming that the hitch comes from a weak lower back (my deadlift 5RM is around 175-185). Should I keep the weight down on the squats until my lower back catches up, or are there any other suggestions?

Sorry for the length and vagueness, and thanks for the help.

[Turnip]

Try doing weightless ATF squats at home or whatever, if it tires you easily and maybe even hurts then you might want to try just doing them regularily till it becomes as easy as running. I dunno just a thought I had.

[Clifford Gillmore]

I would much rather do some ATF squats SS with Good Mornings and go home.

[BG5150]

I read a tip (I believe it was on the Wannabebig main site) that helped me out: It's been common wisdom to push through your heels to push the weight up. Instead, concentrate on pushing you back up through the bar. I found the movement seems more comfortable that way.

[Anthony]

Knees over the toes is fine, provided they are IN LINE with your toes. If they go outward (rare) or inward (common), that's when you'll promote injury.

[Steele]

Because a person squats, does this mean that they are not a bodybuilder, because it is a strength building exercise? I know very little about this so please help

-Steele

[GrumpyTX]

Screw it, use them all.

Leg Presses, Hack Squats, leg extensions, leg curls, etc all play a part in building a better body.

Squats will help focus on all the secondary muscles along with the legs.

Leg presses will focus more on overall leg and glute areas without needing to worry about the strength of secondary muscles.

Leg extensions will focus on the front of the thigh and leg curls will focus on the hamstrings.


Get a good workout from all angles, do them all is my advise.